ARTICLES ABOUT RADIO STATIONS BY DATE - PAGE 2

Last Monday, one of the most famous sets of call letters in the history of Baltimore radio was resurrected on local airwaves. And so far, listeners are split about the new HFS. Broadcasting on 97.5-FM, the newest incarnation is patterned closely after the influential alternative rock station once found at 99.1 on the dial — until its abrupt switch to Latin pop station El Zol in 2005. "The music made popular by HFS has lived on long after the station went off the air," CBS Radio senior vice president Bob Philips said last week when announcing the new station, noting that the brand had been kept alive as a streaming Internet station over the past six years.

Dorothy E. Brunson, who became the first African-American woman in the nation to own a radio station when she bought WEBB-AM in Baltimore, died Sunday of complications from ovarian cancer at Mercy Medical Center. The Northwest Baltimore resident was 72. "Thanks to the pioneering work of Ms. Brunson, the world of broadcast media was opened up to African-American entrepreneurs and business leaders," Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said in a statement. "Her vision and commitment to excellence at every level of the business led to her success and paved the way for others to find success in cities across America.

Three local sports talk show hosts -- Stan "The Fan" Charles, Jerry Coleman and Rob Long -- will be without a home at radio station WVIE (1370 AM) as of Friday morning when the station starts moving to a mainly network news/talk format. The official move by V-1370 to news/talk won't come until July 4th when it goes to 12-hours-a-day Monday-through-Friday programming from America's Radio News, a news service based out of Alexandria, Va., that is carried on more than 100 stations nationally.

Most of us look to our local radio stations as reliable sources for news and music. We tune into them at home, at work, in the car, and pretty much anywhere we go with a radio or device that allows us to stream our favorite stations. As a business owner, I also view local radio stations as an important resource for growth since they offer affordable advertising that helps me reach potential customers. Even though local radio stations are important resources to the communities they serve, the recording industry is pushing for a new tax that would drive some of them out of business and ultimately force others to cut staff and budgets for community-oriented activities such as charity events and disaster relief.

Amid a string of negative news reports, two high-level firings and a move in Congress to end its federal funding, National Public Radio was an organization in turmoil this week. But as grim as it seems for NPR, it is not the large public radio network headquartered in Washington that could suffer the most from the political fallout. Instead, small niche public radio stations like Towson's WTMD and Morgan State University's WEAA in Northeast Baltimore would be the hardest hit. And the cutbacks could start in a matter of weeks, station managers say. "We have a very limited relationship with NPR — we carry only one half-hour of programming from there a week," says LaFontaine E. Oliver, general manager of WEAA (88.9-FM)

Scott Donahoo, a former car salesman known for his boisterous television commercials, told a local radio station that he is giving "serious consideration" to a run for mayor next year, joining an already crowded field of potential candidates. Scott Donahoo told Jimmy Mathis of WBAL radio that as mayor, he would drastically cut property taxes and increase the city's police presence. "We have lost a tremendous amount of the police department due to the failed policies of previous administrations and current administration," Donahoo said during the interview.

BILL DRAKE, 71 Popularized music-centered radio format Bill Drake, who set the tone at hundreds of pop stations with a radio format that placed music - rather than disc jockeys - at the center of the broadcast, died of cancer Saturday at West Hills Hospital in the San Fernando Valley of California, his domestic partner, Carole Scott, said. At the height of his career as a radio programming consultant in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Mr. Drake championed a streamlined format that came to be known as "Boss Radio," which made announcers' personalities secondary to the Top 40 hits they were spinning.

By Jacques Kelly and Jacques Kelly,jacques.kelly@baltsun.com | November 4, 2008

Nicholas Bernard Mangione, a self-made real estate developer who owned country clubs, nursing homes and a radio station, died Sunday at Greater Baltimore Medical Center of complications from a stroke. The Hunt Valley resident was 83. The owner of Turf Valley Resort and Hayfields Country Club, Mr. Mangione was the patriarch of a family whose businesses also include the Lorien nursing homes and radio station WCBM-AM. "He was a guy I admired greatly. He stood up and supported what he believed in," said former U.S. Rep. Helen Delich Bentley.

By Chris Kaltenbach and Chris Kaltenbach,chris.kaltenbach@baltsun.com | October 28, 2008

Baltimore's public radio and television stations are seeing little drop-off in their fundraising efforts, suggesting that their audiences' hunger for news and information during this election year is making up for the country's uncertain economic climate. Officials at both WYPR-FM (88.1) and WEAA-FM (88.9), which carried out fall pledge drives during the past week, reported totals that were roughly in line with last year's pledge drives, if not slightly over. The total raised at WYPR, where the February firing of talk-show host Marc Steiner raised a firestorm of protest and threats from many listeners to stop contributing to the station, was up about $5,000, or about 2 percent.

By Jim Puzzanghera and Jim Puzzanghera,LOS ANGELES TIMES | July 24, 2008

WASHINGTON - Federal regulators appeared poised yesterday to give final approval to the merger of the nation's only two satellite radio operators, which would bring together the struggling companies after a 17-month quest. Deborah Taylor Tate, a Republican who held the swing vote on the five-member Federal Communications Commission, reportedly was ready to vote in favor of the $3.9 billion merger if Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. and XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. agreed to new conditions.